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Let's get out to the hotline. Welcome in former by
great quarterback. We got Steve Klements on the live Steve,
how is your weekend?
Speaker 3: Buddy?
Speaker 4: Oh that's great? Man, I've never had a bad weekend
since I joined the workforce at fifteen years old. So
it's great.
Speaker 3: I love it. Man, Glad all is well in your world.
Speaker 2: Look, I know this is a football segment, but BYU
basketball getting a sixth seed gonna be taken on either
NC State or Texas. Then they'll take on if they win,
if they survive in advance in the round of sixty four,
they'll be taking on Kennesaw State or Gonzaga. How far
do you think BYU is gonna go in this NCAA tournament?
You think they go one and done, Round of thirty two,
Sweet sixteen, Elite eight or better?
Speaker 4: No? I think ah, boy, sweet sixteen means they beat
Gonzaga on essentially their home floor. Boy, that would be
a really tough thing for them to do. But I
mean it's March madness, dude, and we're not supposed to
do anything now that riches out and we've had these
injuries all year, and so I well, you never know.
It's why what you can't get past get through the
second day with a clean bracket. I don't think it's
ever been done. Maybe the third day. I can't remember. Us.
You can't let's get through the first weekend without a
perfect bracket. It's never happened, you know, So dude, March madness.
Everybody's zero and zero and let's let's go. Let's it's
It's an exciting time to be a Coogar fan a
lot of different different ways, right.
Speaker 3: No doubt about it. It's a great day to be Coogar.
Speaker 2: It seems like the glory days, right, like when all
was well, when we were just doing great. The seventies
and eighties, especially the eighties were the glory days. In
my opinion, you were part of some great eras you
were part of great era as well.
Speaker 3: See don't get me wrong, but like.
Speaker 2: This, truly it it's.
Speaker 3: In all the glory days if you will.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really is. I mean, bou athletics is on
the rise, and not just on the rise. I think
they've always kind of been that, but you're seeing kind
of a level of consistency throughout the athletic department, not
just in say the major sports of football, basketball, but
in other sports as well. And uh yeah, like you said,
it's it's great to be a Cougar to establish this
long last of tradition. But getting to a point to
where our sports or individual sports are now becoming elite
and consistently, you know, being on the national stage and
being in the hunt for national championship at least the
conference championship. And that's that goes without saying on really
every single sport and our athletic program has a chance
every year to at least win a conference championship. And
that's that's that's good, and that's good for you know,
the program, is good for alumni, is good for Brian Santiago,
you know, him stepping in and doing this for the
first time. And uh so, yeah, all is good, man.
Speaker 2: Hey, all is well in Zion right now. Uh And look,
Camp Koalani's well underway right now too.
Speaker 3: And there's been some great storylines coming out of camp.
Speaker 2: The one one story I'm intrigued by right now is
the quarterback two battle. What have you been hearing about
Trayson Borgay and Goldie Enick Watson? Uh, do we have
depth there at quarterback? Do we have guys behind Bear Bachmeier?
And I know he's he's big, he's wrong, he's uh,
he's he's a thick, he's a dense dude.
Speaker 3: He does not get injured.
Speaker 2: He take a lot of hits, and he stayed healthy
for the majority of the season.
Speaker 3: But just in case, I got to know.
Speaker 2: Who's behind our guy right now, Bear Bachmeier, And I
know Trayson's older, wiser, He's got a lot of experience
as a college football play You also got the young
buck Enick Watson. How do we feel about right right
about the depth at quarterback right now?
Speaker 4: I think we're I think we're good in the QB
room because you you have Tracy being the veteran that
he has, he has the locker room behind him, and
he's gonna he's gonna go managed a football game and
he's gonna perform. There's no substitute for experience. And it's
not a knock on Enich, but Trason right now has experience.
He has experienced in playbook, has experienced on the field,
has experienced not just on the field, but at the
Division one level performing beating Michigan State years ago. And
I know it's been quite a while since he's seen
significant time, but that's it's almost like muscle memory for me. One.
Once you get in there and you've experienced the Saturday night,
the Saturday afternoon in the fall, then that's you know,
you've got one more arrow in the quiver than somebody
like Enig that comes off young, extremely talented. Can he
surpass Tracey? Sure he can playbook athleticism, ability and whatever
is happening between the ears. Hopefully that comes to fruition
in the fall that he can maybe early in the season,
get some reps in the fourth quarter some of the
games that might get out of hand, so that he
can get a taste of it so it's not foreign
to him when indeed he's called upon, and maybe he
makes the jump to number two. But as I see
it right now, I think it's better than Trason with
the experience that he has. The nod over right now.
But I mean we're mill of March, dude, So yeah.
Speaker 3: We're in the middle of March. There's plenty to be done.
Speaker 2: But it is hard to unseat the tenured guy right this,
this seasoned vet that's in front of you. I mean,
you've seen many quarterback competitions, You've been a part of
many core quarterback competitions.
Speaker 3: How difficult is it?
Speaker 2: Even if you are, you know, potentially more talented, you
have better arm strength, you better athlete, it's difficult to
unseat that that tenured season vet in front of you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is, it's it's really I mean, you're he's
kind of the incumbent. I guess I'm going to use
a political term. Sure, uh, the incumbent backup too, you know,
I think a Heisman Trophy candidate, probably in mid season
of his sophomore year. And so you know when you
have the locker room behind you, which in essence you
have the coaching staff behind you, and he's played the
role quite perfectly. I mean I've seen, you know, he's
doing things for kids and in his off season, in
his off time, and he's just he's been out there
in the community and he's become kind of a little
crowd favorite. He's one of my favorites. But but I have,
you know, intimate knowledge, and you know, I've had a
conversation with him about five to ten minutes last year,
and it just seems to be a really great kid
feed or firm, firmly planet on the ground, and he
understands his role and he relishes the role that he has,
even though it's a backup. We all want to start.
He wants to start, sure, he wants to start, but
he gets it, he understands it. He's got a role
and he's accepted the role. And I think that's why
Byu has been so good the last couple of years.
As these kids that come in transfer whatever, even maybe
you know the older upperclassman Klawnie does a good job
in jay Hill until this past. You're an a rod
of defining everybody's roles, so they have to be good
with it or if not, then yeah there's going to
be an issue. But that's you know, when you have
a leadership and you have a successful head coach that's
done it the right way for quite amount of time.
And that's part of the culture I think he's brought
to Bayu the last ten years is that everybody has
a role, and you play your role to the best
of your ability. You do whatever you can to support
your team wherever that's a backup, whether it's starter, whether
it's special team, whether you're on the bench, Like we're
all in this together and we need everyone doing their things,
doing their playing their role, whether it's scout team or whatever,
because if it doesn't happen, then you don't have these success,
successful seasons like we've seen the last three or four years.
Speaker 3: No doubt about it.
Speaker 2: You gotta stay consistent and uh, you know, you gotta
buy into the Klondi culture right now. If you're a
if you're a BYU fan, I know that, uh your
body and you see it. What stands after you at
the Colonia culture that you're kind of proud of right
now and watching these young men buy in and ball.
Speaker 4: Out for Brigham, well, I think number one, he's a
player's coach. I think level is a players coach. He
is a players coach, meaning he he's gonna you know
that he's gonna support you no matter what, whether it's
on the field or even off the field, like Kline's
gonna have your back. He's more he's more of a
big brother without graying the line of coach player, if
that makes sense, because once you start to gray the
line and you become guy's friends, then maybe you don't
have as much respect. But I think he does a
really good job of I think being coached from Mabel
who did a masterful job of being a player's coach.
And so I don't think anyone is afraid to go
talk to Clonnie about a grievance they might have, but
also telling him about a celebration they might have in
their life. And so once you generate a culture like that,
then and everybody gets bought in. It's you know, your
head coach has your back, and your coordinators having your
back and coaching staff. Then it filters down into the players.
Then that locker room is solid because you've established some
leadership within that culture and you're just plug and play
really every year. And you know, and then you go
to the the acumen as far as all knowledge. On
the defensive side, you got one of the best DC's
that you know in the last when when he was
a DC. He's on the top coordinators in the league.
And you have Gary Anderson who's been running the same
type of defense his entire career. That's helping K Pop
an a rod's a season better. We don't have guys
that have you know, called i mean outside of defense.
I mean this is going to be K Pop's first
rodeo calling a defense. But he's been around the game
so long, for so much, even with his brother being
in the NFL, and been around the game of football
probably for twenty twenty five years, if not longer. That's
we're good man, And that's what I feel good about
is Is it not just the players and the talent
and the depth that we're establishing in the spring, but
being able to manage that roster with Coloney at the
head and coach Anderson and a Rod and all assistance
that we've assembled and got here. Yeah, things are Things
are good.
Speaker 3: All is well.
Speaker 2: Right now, Steve Klement's talking some BYU football. I do
want to bring up a college football storyline. I don't
know if you've been keeping track of this nc Double
A versus Trinidad Chimbliss Chambliss preliminary injunction the nc DOUBLEA.
Speaker 3: This was back on March fifth.
Speaker 2: The NCUBA was appealing to Trinidad Chambers's preliminary injunction, which
granted him eligibility for the twenty twenty six season.
Speaker 3: Now his eligibility is technically up.
Speaker 2: But he's had you know, I mean he injuries and
transfers and other things. It was a six hundred and
fifty eight page filing to the Mississippi State Supreme Court
on March fifth. The NCAA is asking the court to
overrull the injunction and expect the ruling so like there
was a judge that essentially granted him eligibility rights. Then
the NCUALEA counters now all uh Trinidad. Chamberlass's lawyers have
filed a response to the NCAA's appeal of Chamberlass's eligibility
ruling in Mississippi.
Speaker 3: State Supreme Court.
Speaker 2: It's fairly straightforward and argues that the NCAA hasn't met
the standard for the appeal and an expedited review isn't warranted.
Speaker 3: This thing's going back and forth.
Speaker 2: What's your kind of opinion on like eligibility rules, like
should it be just five for five, six for six?
You know, there's there's like a legal component here as well,
because like technically it's it's kind of illegal to say,
like you can't go work in for for for a
I guess a college football team or nil team, Like
it's not necessarily a W two employer, it's a W
nine independent contractor. I mean, you're just seeing all these
things occur in and you just wonder where it's all
going to play out and how it's going to play out.
Speaker 4: Well, it's semantics, and that's why the nl it's just
a whild while lesson. It's ridiculous right now because I
mean you have, whether it's basketball or football or really
any sport, you have kids that are twenty five, twenty six,
twenty seven years old that are playing collegiate athletics. And
that's just at some point you got to stop the madness.
I mean, it's it's really yeah, whether it's five or
five or one transfer or you get it. You know,
I say, you get one transfer on the second transfer
if the coach leaves, yeah, you can be granted a
second transfer. But that's it, man, I mean we're just
like and then the nil deal with yeah exactly, semantics
is a W two versus W nine and they're really employee.
Well he is getting paid, but he's not an employee
of the university per se. He's not working for university,
but then kind of he is. But then n images,
image likeness has been so bastardized. How they've taking name,
image and likeness and just really turned it upside down
and inside out and made it to wherever it benefits,
you know, on eighteen nineteen all the way up to
twenty five and twenty six year old now. And so
I don't know, but a lot of things after you've done,
I know they've been calling people into Congress to see
if the government can help. And boy, I don't know,
but you got to. You gotta start making some rules
here really really quick as far as the transfer and
maybe money or limits.
Speaker 3: Well, that's the thing.
Speaker 2: I think it's like illegal to put those parameters in place,
Like I think it's it's a legal thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I exactly. Well, and you get a legal thing
exactly because different than different lawyers in different courts and
different judges can read say different ways. Right.
Speaker 2: That's why like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer and all
these like co which is are like, hey, we need
the federal government to step in and let the federal
government give the NCAA and its sponsoring institutions legal presidents
to operate as a monopoly like they used to and
have arbitrary jurisdiction over these student athletes again and put
them on a pay scale of they only get this
amount of money with their.
Speaker 3: Little scholarship check. That's what they want.
Speaker 2: They want that exemption to be able to operate as
a monopoly again.
Speaker 4: Right. Well, I'll tell you what's said is what's gone
by the wayside is the importance of free education. No
one talks about the scholarship going to essentially a free
education for these college athletes. And in some places you're
talking about a curve of a million dollars over span
of four or five years for a really, really good
at education that they're going to have to utilize probably
if not a year out of college, maybe a couple
of years if they're lucky. You know, they get lucky
and they get into a pros regardless of the sport
or the Olympics or whatever. And no one talks about
that anymore. That used to be a big freaking deal, right,
You get a free ride, you get a scholarship, free education.
You're talking to CEOs and your study groups at college,
and you've got all these connections and you've made all
these friendships and relationships in classes and studying and this
and that and the college life and universe. Like, no
one talks about that. It's like it's just about money now.
And it's sad because the education is going to last them.
That money is going to run out at some point
if they don't do it right, and then that all
they have is their education to fall back on. Well,
if you're transferring from school to school, they don't lose,
they don't a lot of those. When I when I
transferred from Texas to BOU, I only have three credits
transfer at thirty six that I had through two semesters
in a swimmer school the transfer. So if I go
transfer again to whatever Alabama or UCL or whoever, then
I probably lose another year. Well, I never graduate unless
I'm a you know, a seven year eight year college student.
And I guess if they're going to allow eligibility to continue,
I guess maybe they can. They can get that done.
But it's sad that they're putt in really the educational
portion of this as a non issue or unimportant or
at less very less stressed than it used to be.
Speaker 2: And that well, I think I think part of the
issue too is like your education that you got and
the education that I got because of the hour is
allocated to football strength and conditioning practice, you know, everything
that went into it, Like it's hard to compete in
the classroom. Your your education MINUSERT wasn't the same as
the education that others got because of the hours of
allocation that had to be engaged in.
Speaker 3: On the football field. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: And so like I get I agree with you, Like
it's been decreased, but also the requirement on of football
and travel and you know, getting concussions every single day.
You know, it kind of puts you at a competitive
disadvantage academically when you're trying to compete in the classroom
versus full time students.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really does, because you know, you've committed and
you've gone to school there to play a particular sport
because they're investing you in a you know, a scholarship
and a four year education at no cost. Plus we're
going to give you a little bit of extra money.
So you've committed to that. So yeah, between if you're
a football player, between well now until November, yeah, you've
got travel, and you've got practice, and you've got this
and you've got that. But it's still I mean what
they've limited the amount of practices you can have where
it's important. If it's stress, then it's going to be
stressed to the individual player. And they're going to go
to class in the spring even though it's not football season,
and they're going to get back and they're they're gonna fly.
Like I know, I heard this. I was up from
a third FLOORID administration building and a couple of people
were talking about how they were kind of upset at
a couple of players that didn't make a class yet.
And this was a couple of weeks ago, maybe about
a month ago, and football players I'm talking about, Yeah,
when Aj and Robert had the same class and they
flew in from Ames or love It the night before,
but they were still up the next morning in class,
and so yeah, I guess it's what the coach or
the administration or athletic director stresses, the importance of class
and that education. And hey, Jay doesn't have to do that.
I mean, he's set, dude, we all know that. But
the fact that he was still there and Robert Wright
was still there in class after getting at at two
or three in the morning from wherever they were playing
that night, it's yeah, it's but yeah, it's it's a mess, dude,
and it's too bad.
Speaker 3: Yep, yes it is.
Speaker 2: Hey, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3: Like I will say this much this, let me give you.
Speaker 2: A little, uh, a little positivity here because we are
going into some negative talk here. The fact that Indiana
won the National championship one of the worst teams in
college football history tells you everything. You need to know
about where we're at in the college football landscape.
Speaker 3: In NIL.
Speaker 2: The NIL transfer portal era has allowed teams like b
YU right, teams like Indiana to kind of elevate themselves.
So I think not all is bad, not all is
wrong in the world, you know what I mean, There's
some good things as well. Steve Klemens, Ladies and gentlemen, Steve,
we gotta let you go. Always a pleasure, always a
blessing talking ball with you. We'll catch up with you
again soon. But thanks for hopping on to talk some
camp Kalani and college.
Speaker 4: Football sounds good. I have a good, good week, buddy, all.
Speaker 3: Right, appreciate you, Steve Klemis, Ladies and gentlemen.
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